Final Order 2

Order Details: COPY OF ORDER
Pdf Text: IN THE COURT OF VIDYA PRAKASH
SPECIAL JUDGE (PC ACT) (ACB)-01
ROUSE AVENUE COURT COMPLEX, NEW DELHI
CNR No. DLCT11-000353-2026
Bail Matter No. 82/2026
Dinesh Dabas v. State
AND
CNR No. DLCT11-000352-2026
Bail Matter No. 83/2026
Jogender v. State
FIR No. 4/2026
PS: ACB
U/s 7,7A PC Act
r/w S.308(5)/61(2) BNS
ORDER
1. Vide this common order, I shall dispose off two separate
bail applications moved on behalf of above named accused
persons, as they arise out of the same FIR.
2. Separate replies of both the aforesaid bail applications
have been filed.
3. Arguments on both the aforesaid bail applications have
been heard on behalf of both the sides. I have duly
considered rival submissions made on behalf of both the
sides in the light of material available on record. I have
also duly considered the authorities cited at the Bar.
4. Sh. Adarsh Priyadarshi, Advocate, who appeared on behalf
of applicant/accused Dinesh Dabas, has argued that the
said accused has been falsely implicated in the present
case; he is continuously in custody since 09-02-2026, the
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investigation qua the said accused has already been
completed and thus, is no more required for the purpose of
investigation. He further argued that the investigating
agency had obtained 3 days PC remand of said accused,
during which, nothing incriminating was recovered either
from his possession or at his instance and thereafter,
IO never sought police remand of said accused till date;
the entire evidence is documentary in nature; the material
witnesses of prosecution are primarily official witnesses
and thus, there is no possibility of of the applicant/ accused
tampering with the evidence, or influencing any of the
prosecution witnesses in any manner. He further argued
that co-accused Pankaj, who was allegedly apprehended on
the spot with accused Dinesh Dabas and against whom
similar allegations appear in the FIR, has already been
granted bail by this Court on 02.04.2026. He further
contended that even co-accused Ravi, who as per the case
of prosecution, had sent accused Dinesh Dabas to collect
the alleged bribe/ extortion money, has also been granted
bail by this Court on 02.04.2026. He, therefore, urged that
accused Dinesh Dabas also deserves to be granted bail on
the ground of parity.
5. He further submitted that the said accused is permanent
resident of Delhi and undertakes to abide by all the terms
and conditions as may be imposed upon him by the Court,
if so granted bail.
6. In support of his aforesaid submissions, he also placed
reliance upon the following decisions of Hon’ble Delhi
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High Court:-
6.1 ‘Anuj Gupta v. Central Bureau of Investigation’
bearing Bail Application No. 279/2022, decided on
23.02.2022;
6.2 ‘Kashif v. Narcotic Control Bureau’ having neutral
citation 2026:DHC:1195;
6.3 ‘Vikramjit Singh v. Narcotic Control Bureau’
reported as 2025 SCC OnLine Del 173; and
6.4 ‘Yudhveer Singh Yadav v. CBI’ reported as 2024
SCC Online Del 7070.
7. Likewise, Sh. Dharam Singh and Sh. Som Prakash,
Advocates, who appeared on behalf of other applicant/
accused Jogender, argued that said accused has been
falsely implicated in the present case; he is continuously in
custody since 06-03-2026, the investigation qua the said
accused has already been completed and thus, he is no
more required for the purpose of investigation. They
further argued that accused Jogender was arrested merely
on the basis of disclosure statement of co-accused Manish
and nothing incriminating was recovered either from his
possession or at his instance. It has been further argued
that the said accused had duly co-operated with
investigation at all stages and he is neither named in the
FIR, nor he evaded the process of law during the course of
investigation. It is further argued that the applicant/accused
was working as Head Warder in Tihar Jail and thus, he is
not a flight risk and he is having clean antecedents. They
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further argued that co-accused persons namely Ashish
Rana, Pankaj Kumar and Ravi Kumar have already been
granted bail in this case and therefore, the
applicant/accused also deserves to be granted bail on such
terms and conditions as may be imposed by the Court.
8. Per contra, both the bail applications have been strongly
opposed by Ld. Chief PP for State, on the ground that both
the accused persons have played an important role in the
commission of offences alleged in this case. He submitted
that complainant namely Sh. Kunal had been receiving
repeated calls on his phone from his father Rakesh and
brother Aniket, who are inmates in Rohini Jail and were
allegedly under pressure, and they had been asking him to
pay bribe to the jail officials. He further submitted that co-
accused Ravi had obtained details of complainant Kunal,
from Rakesh Jatti and Aniket [who are father and brother
respectively of complainant] from inside Rohini Jail and
sent scanned copy thereof to accused Dinesh Dabas
alongwith text message ‘abhi baat kar liyo’ on 09.02.2026
at 18:29 hours, on the basis of which, accused Dinesh
Dabas alongwith co-accused Pankaj Kumar were caught
red handed while accepting the bribe money of ₹50,000/-
from the complainant on 09.02.2026 during the trap laid
down by the raiding team of PS ACB and bribe money of
₹50,000/- was recovered from the possession of accused
Dinesh Dabas. He pointed out that accused Jogender had
been using ATM Card of co-accused Manish, for
withdrawing amounts through ATM installed near Tihar
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Jail Complex, for which, attention of Court has been drawn
to the relevant transactions regarding withdrawal of such
amounts on number of occasions w.e.f. 10.01.2025
onwards till 23.01.2026.
9. The bail applications have also been opposed on the
grounds that investigation is still going on and more
evidence is likely to surface, which would establish the
connection of these accused persons, as also the role
played by them in the commission of offences alleged
against them. He, therefore, urged that both the bail
applications may be dismissed.
10. In brief, the FIR in question was registered on 09.02.2026,
on the basis of written complaint dated 09.02.2026 lodged
by Sh. Kunal at PS ACB, wherein he alleged that his father
and brother, who were accused in criminal case of
PS Raja Park, were lodged in Rohini Jail since the year
2020; the jail officials had made the lives of his father and
brother hell inside Rohini Jail for the last about 6-7 months
and they had to repeatedly pay bribe money to them, due to
which, they had to sell their house also. While narrating
several instances where such bribe money were allegedly
paid from time to time during the said period, he alleged
that on 04.02.2026, he had received call from his
father/UTP through mobile number from inside Rohini Jail
that jail officials would help him in release on parole for
15 days in case they would pay bribe money of
1,50,000/-, which was followed by another call from his	₹
father, who having told him that he was being pressurized
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by jail officials to pay the bribe money, failing which, they
had threatened him of being killed after being transferred
from said jail and thus, he had to transfer a sum of
47,000/- through PayTM on mobile number of one	₹
person namely Manish. Similarly, on 06.02.2026, he had
received another call from his father/UTP from inside the
Rohini Jail that jail officials were giving beatings to them
and were repeatedly pressurizing them to pay the bribe
money. He, thus, asked the complainant to bring
1,50,000/- at petrol pump situated near Rohini Jail. When	₹
the complainant did not go there on that day, he received
another call on 07.02.2026 from his father/UTP, who
informed him that due to non-payment of bribe by
complainant on 06.02.2026, he was tortured by the jail
officials and on the request of his father, the complainant
again transferred a sum of 50,000/- through PayTM on	₹
the same number of said Manish. He further alleged that he
had transferred various amounts through PayTM on other
PayTM numbers of various other persons, as per the details
mentioned in the said complaint. On 08.02.2026, he had
received another call from his father/UTP from inside the
Rohini Jail, who asked him about the reason for not paying
the bribe money to the jail officials,and he was being
harassed by them due to non-payment of such money.
On 09.02.2026, his brother/UTP also made call to the
complainant from inside Rohini Jail and told him that the
complainant would have to arrange for the bribe money
under any circumstance and would have to pay the same to
the jail officials on that day itself, for which, the jail
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officials i.e. Head Ravi, Dinesh or some other person/staff
to be deputed by them, would contact him through phone
and the complainant should pay the bribe money to them.
11. Accordingly, trap was laid down by the raiding team of
PS ACB. During the trap proceedings, complainant had
produced cash of 1,00,000/- in the form of 200 GC notes	₹
of the denomination of 500/- each and allegedly handed	₹
over 100 GC notes of 500/- each smeared with	₹
phenolphthalein powder, thus, amounting to 50,000/-, to	₹
applicant/accused Ashish Rana who had allegedly come at
petrol pump near Rohini Jail and said GC notes smeared
with phenolphthalein powder, were recovered from his
possession. Thereafter, the complainant received several
calls in between 05:30 pm to 06:21 pm on 09.02.2026 and
he was asked to pay further amount of 50,000/- to Jail	₹
Warden who would visit him. Accordingly, further trap
was laid, during which, the complainant handed over
remaining 100 GC notes of 500/- each, duly smeared	₹
with phenolphthalein powder, to co-accused Dinesh Dabas
and applicant/accused Pankaj Kumar, who had come on
one white colour scooty, on which, applicant/accused
Pankaj Kumar was sitting as pillion rider and said GC
notes were recovered from the possession of co-accused
Dinesh Dabas. Thereafter, applicant/ accused Ravi Kumar
was asked to join investigation, through Notice under
S.35(3) of BNSS dated 14.02.2026 for 16.02.2026, on
which date, he was also arrested in this case.
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12. As per the case of prosecution, the role ascribed to
applicant/accused Dinesh Dabas is that he was caught red
handed, while he alongwith co-accused Pankaj Kumar
[since granted bail] had gone to receive bribe money of
50,000/- from the complainant on the alleged date, time	₹
and place of incident in question. Further, as per the case
of prosecution, the alleged bribe money of 50,000/- was	₹
recovered from the possession of applicant/accused
Dinesh Dabas.
13. The role attributed to applicant/accused Jogender is that he
was using ATM Card of co-accused Manish and withdrew
certain amounts from time to time through ATM installed
near Tihar Jail Campus, as also from ATM installed at
other places.
14. Though, IO has mentioned in replies to bail applications
under consideration that more evidence has surfaced
during subsequent investigation, however, entire replies
are found to be silent as to why these applicants/accused
persons are required to be further detained in custody for
the purpose of investigation of this case, and/or what
purpose would be served by keeping them behind the jail.
The applicants/accused persons cannot be deprived of their
personal liberty merely because further investigation is
going on. It is also nowhere the case of investigating
agency that applicants/accused persons are not permanent
residents of Delhi and are flight risks. The entire evidence
is mainly documentary in nature and there is nothing on
record to show that applicants/accused persons are in a
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position to tamper with the evidence in any manner
whatsoever.
15. In so far as applicant/accused Dinesh Dabas is concerned,
he is continuously in custody since 10.02.2026, whereas,
applicant/accused Jogender is continuously in custody
since 06.03.2026. Both the said accused are not shown to
be previously involved in any other criminal case. Both are
public servants and are stated to be unblemished service
record. Investigation qua all these applicants/ accused
persons is shown to have already been completed.
Moreover, investigation may take considerable time as role
of jail officials named in the FIR, as also role of other jail
officials/ private persons whose names have surfaced
during the course of investigation carried out so far, is still
underway. Furthermore, co-accused persons namely
Ashish Rana, Pankaj Kumar and Ravi Kumar have already
been granted bail in this case. The role attributed to
applicant/accused Dinesh Dabas is more or less similar to
the role assigned to co-accused Pankaj Kumar. The role
allegedly played by applicant/accused Jogender is lesser
than that of co-accused persons who have already been
granted bail in this case.
16. Though, it is mentioned in reply filed by IO that
applicants/ accused persons may influence the witnesses
and may tamper with the evidence in the event of grant of
bail to them, however, neither any concrete basis of such
apprehension is disclosed in the replies, nor shown before
the Court during the course of submission.
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17. In view of reasons mentioned hereinbefore and keeping in
view overall facts and circumstances of the case, including
the period of incarceration of applicants/ accused persons,
the nature of evidence alleged against them, the role
allegedly played by them in the commission of the crime,
and the fact that co-accused persons namely Ashish Rana,
Ravi and Pankaj Kumar have since already been granted
bail, Court is of the view that both the bail applications
deserve to be allowed. Accordingly, both the accused
persons namely Dinesh Dabas and Jogender are admitted
to bail on their furnishing personal bond in the sum of
50	₹ ,000/- each with one surety each in the like amount,
however, subject to the following conditions:-
17.1 That applicants/accused persons shall join the
investigation in this case as and when so required by
the IO;
17.2 That the applicants/accused persons shall not try to
contact or influence, directly or indirectly,
complainant or any other witness of present case and
shall not tamper with evidence;
17.3 That applicants/accused persons shall not misuse the
liberty of bail by indulging in commission of similar
offence(s) in future;
17.4 That applicants/accused persons shall appear before
the Court on each and every date of hearing, when
so required;
17.5 That applicants/accused persons shall not leave the
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country without prior permission of the Court;
17.6 That applicants/accused persons shall intimate to the
Court in case of change of their residential address;
and
17.7 In the event of breach of any of the aforesaid
conditions imposed by the Court, it shall be open
for the State to apply for cancellation of bail
being granted to the applicants/ accused persons
herein.
18. Both the bail applications stand disposed off in the
aforesaid terms.
19. Copy of this order be given Dasti to the IO, as well as to
Ld. Counsels for the applicants/accused persons, as
requested. Copy of this order be also sent to concerned Jail
Superintendent(s), for being delivered to the said accused
persons, as per the Rules.
20. It is hereby made clear that nothing mentioned herein shall
tantamount to expression of any opinion by this Court on
merits of the case and the observations made hereinbefore,
are solely for the purpose of deciding the bail applications
in hand.
(Vidya Prakash)
Special Judge, PC Act (ACB)-01
RACC, New Delhi.
07.04.2026(r)
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